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Safari (web browser)

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Safari
Developer(s)Apple Inc.
Initial release1.0 (85) June 23, 2003
Stable release
Preview release
Engine
  • WebKit
Edit this at Wikidata
Operating systemMac OS X, Microsoft Windows, iPhone OS
TypeWeb browser
LicenseProprietary EULA
Engine under GNU LGPL
WebsiteApple: Safari

Safari is a web browser developed by Apple Inc. and included in Mac OS X. It was first released as a public beta on January 7, 2003,[1] and is the default browser in Mac OS X v10.3 and later. It is also the native browser on the Apple iPhone and iPod touch. A beta version for Microsoft Windows was released for the first time on June 11 2007 with support for Windows XP and Windows Vista,[2], with a release version for Windows following on March 18, 2008. Safari has also been run unofficially on Linux under Wine, but the graphical user interface (GUI) and web graphics do not render properly.[3]

Since the release of Safari, its usage share has been climbing. For the month of February 2008, TheCounter.com reports a usage share of 3.34% for Safari;[4] while Net Applications records a usage share of 4.61% in April 2007 and 5.70% in February 2008.[5] This may be due to aggressively cuing users of other Apple software to download Safari in Apple Software Update.

Features

Safari offers most features common to modern web browsers. In addition, some of these features are implemented in distinctive ways, while it also includes some unique to the browser:

  • A tabbed-browsing interface that allows dragging tabs to reorder them, move them between windows or create new windows.
  • A bookmark management scheme reminiscent of the iTunes jukebox software.
  • A resizable web-search box in the toolbar. This uses Google on the Mac and either Google or Yahoo! on Windows.
  • Pop-up ad blocking.
  • As-you-type text search.
  • Spell-checking for all text entry fields.
  • Expandable text entry boxes, which can be resized by the user to make entering long texts easier.
  • Automatic filling in of web forms.
  • Built-in password management via Keychain.
  • Functionality for subscribing to and reading web feeds.
  • Quartz-style font-smoothing even on Windows.
  • Integration of Apple's QuickTime multimedia technology.
  • Support for user-specified style sheets.
  • The Web Inspector, a DOM Inspector-like utility that lets users and developers browse the Document Object Model of a web page.[6]
  • A high level of standards compliance through its use of the WebKit framework, including partial, preliminary support for CSS3 and HTML 5.

CSS support

Safari features full support for Cascading Style Sheets (CSS), including partial support of CSS3.[7] Safari 3 supports several experimental properties like text-shadow, text-stroke, box-shadow, border-image, multiple backgrounds for each element, resizeable elements, rgba() and the CSS3 pseudo-element :first-of-type.

History and development

Until 1997, Apple Macintosh computers had shipped with Netscape Navigator only, competing with Internet Explorer 2.x and 3. Microsoft's Internet Explorer for Mac was subsequently included as the default web browser as part of the five year agreement between Apple and Microsoft. However, Netscape Navigator continued to be included. Microsoft released three major versions of Internet Explorer for Mac that were bundled with the OS, with the last one, Internet Explorer 5 being released on March 27, 2000.

On January 7, 2003, Steve Jobs announced that Apple had developed their own web browser based on KHTML rendering engine, called Safari.[8] They released the first beta version that day and a number of official and unofficial beta versions followed, until version 1.0 was released on June 23, 2003. Available as a separate download initially, it was included with the Mac OS X v10.3 release on October 24, 2003, as the default browser, with Internet Explorer for Mac included only as an alternative browser. Since the release of Mac OS X v10.4 in April 29, 2005, Safari is the only web browser included with the operating system.

Safari uses Apple's WebKit for rendering web pages and running JavaScript. WebKit consists of WebCore (based on Konqueror's KHTML engine) and JavaScriptCore (based on KDE's JavaScript engine named KJS). Like KHTML and KJS, WebCore and JavaScriptCore are free software and are released under the terms of the GNU Lesser General Public License. Some Apple improvements to the KHTML code are merged back into the Konqueror project. Apple also releases additional code under an open source 2-clause BSD-like license.

File:Safari RSS.png
Safari showing the RSS feed of this article's revision history.

In June 2005, after some criticism from KHTML developers over lack of access to change logs, Apple moved the development source code and bug tracking of WebCore and JavaScriptCore to OpenDarwin.org. WebKit itself was also released as open source. The source code for non-renderer aspects of the browser, such as its GUI elements, remains proprietary.

Version 2.0 of Safari, was released on April 29, 2005 and runs only on Mac OS X 10.4.x (Tiger) or later. It includes a built-in RSS and Atom reader. Other features include Private Browsing (a mode in which no record of information about the user's web activity is retained), the ability to archive (using the proprietary .webarchive format) and e-mail web pages, the ability to search bookmarks, and a reported 1.8 times speed boost over version 1.2.4.

In April 2005, Dave Hyatt, one of the Safari developers at Apple, documented his progress fixing bugs in Safari to get it to pass the Acid2 test. On April 27, 2005, he announced that his development version of Safari now passed the test, making it the first web browser to do so.[9] The changes were not initially available to end-users unless they downloaded and compiled the WebKit source code themselves or ran one of the nightly automated builds available at opendarwin.org.[10] However on October 31, 2005, Apple released version 2.0.2 of Safari that included the Acid2 bug fixes.

File:Safari Public Beta 3 Windows.PNG
Windows XP using the Public Beta 3 version of Safari. The "bug" icon can be seen adjacent to the address bar, used for reporting errors and problems in the browser.

On January 9 2007, Steve Jobs formally announced Apple's iPhone, which uses the Safari browser. At the 2007 Worldwide Developers Conference, Steve Jobs announced Safari 3 for Microsoft Windows XP and Windows Vista. The Safari beta version for Windows had several known bugs[11] and a zero day exploit that allows remote execution, upon its initial beta release on June 11, 2007, in version 3.0.[12] The addressed bugs were then corrected by Apple three days later on June 14, 2007, in version 3.0.1 on Windows. On June 22, 2007, Apple released Safari 3.0.2 to address some bugs, performance issues and other security issues. Safari 3.0.2 for Windows handles some fonts that are missing in the browser but already installed on your computer, such as Tahoma, Trebuchet MS, and others. There is also a guide that allows the software to run under Linux with Wine.

File:Safari For Windows Final Release.jpg
The final release of Safari for Windows on Windows XP. Note the "bug" button removed.

The final release Windows version, 3.1 (525.13), was offered as a free download on March 18, 2008.

At the announcement, Steve Jobs claimed that Safari is the fastest browser and, to prove this, he ran a benchmark, based on the iBench browser test suite, live at the show. External measurement of Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) load times suggested that Safari is the fastest browser on the Windows platform in terms of initial data loading over the Internet, but is tied with Internet Explorer 7 and Firefox when comparing loading from caches[13].

Criticism

Distribution through Apple Software Update

Apple Inc. has been criticized for using Apple Software Update, which is bundled with QuickTime and iTunes in Microsoft Windows, to promote Safari to Windows users. When Safari 3.1 is not detected in a user's machine, the updating software, by default, automatically selects the browser for installation. John Lilly, CEO of Mozilla, stated that Apple's use of its updating software to promote its other products is "a bad practice and should stop." He argued that the practice "borders on malware distribution practices" and "undermines the trust that [software companies are] all trying to build with users."[14] Apple has responded to Lilly's statement, saying that the company is only trying to ensure users have the latest updates to Safari.[14]

PWN 2 OWN Browser Exploit

At the 2008 PWN 2 OWN security conference hosted by CanSecWest, a browser exploit in Safari caused Mac OS X to be the first to fall in a "hacker Super Bowl." Participants competed to find a way to read the contents of a file located on one of three operating systems: Mac OS X Leopard, Windows Vista SP1, and Ubuntu 7.10. On the second day of the contest, when users were allowed to physically interact with the computers, Charlie Miller took over a default installation of Mac OS X within two minutes, using a 0day exploit in Safari.[15] Windows Vista fell the following day (when third-party software was allowed) to an Adobe Flash exploit, leaving Ubuntu as the "winner."

Version compatibility

Operating systems Latest version
Mac OS 10.2 1.0.3 (August 13, 2004)
Mac OS 10.3 1.3.2 (January 11, 2006)
Windows 2000 3.0.3 (August 1, 2007)
Mac OS 10.4/10.5; Windows XP/Vista 3.1.1 (April 16, 2008)

Safari usually requires the latest system update in order to function (for Windows, these are Service Packs, and on Mac, these are minor version releases).

Version history

Note the version may be reported differently in the "About Safari" function than those reported below for the WebKit. The initial Mac OS X v10.5 "Leopard" release version of Safari is 3.0.4 (5523.10) where the same version below is reported as 3.0.4. (523.10.3).
Key: Old Version Current Version Developer Beta[16]

Mac

Major version Minor version WebKit version Operating System Release date Features
First beta release 0.8 48 Mac OS X 10.2 January 7, 2003 Public Beta. Initial release at Macworld conference.
0.9 73 April 14, 2003 Public Beta 2. Tabbed browsing, forms and passwords autofill, browser reset (removes cookies, cache and so on), Netscape and Mozilla bookmarks importing, improved support for web standards, improved AppleScript support, more localizations.
Version 1 1.0 85 June 23, 2003 First non-beta release. Safari is now default Mac OS X browser, faster autotabs, support for iSync bookmark synchronization, all Mac OS X languages supported, more AppleScripts to control browser, improved support for web standards.
1.0.3 85.8.5 August 13, 2004 Improves the Safari rendering engine to expand third party application support and delivers the latest security enhancements.
1.1 100 Mac OS X 10.3 October 24, 2003 Released with Mac OS X v10.3. Improved speed, improved support for web standards, improved CSS support.
1.2 125 February 2, 2004 Improved compatibility with websites and web applications. Support for personal certificate authentication. Full keyboard access for navigation. Ability to resume interrupted downloads. LiveConnect support. XMLHttpRequest support.
1.3 312 April 15, 2005 Released with 10.3.9. Included most of the rendering speed and website compatibility improvements that were developed for 2.0.
1.3.1 312.3 August 29, 2005
1.3.2 312.5 January 11, 2006
Version 2 2.0 412 Mac OS X 10.4 April 29, 2005 Dubbed "Safari RSS." Released with Mac OS X v10.4. Improved rendering speed and website compatibility. Integrated RSS and Atom reader. Integrated PDF viewer. Private Browsing mode and Parental Controls. Saving Websites completely using the proprietary WebArchive format.
2.0.2 416.11 October 31, 2005 Safari passes The Web Standards Project Acid2 test.
2.0.4 419.3 13 January, 2006 Most widely distributed version of Safari 2. Last stable version released before version 3.0.
Version 3 3.0 522.11 June 11, 2007 Public beta. Initial release at the Worldwide Developers Conference. Version for Mac OS X v10.4.9 and later. Improved searching within web pages. Drag and drop tabs, and the ability to save a group of tabs as a single bookmark. Live resizing of text input fields. Bonjour support for bookmarks. Initial SVG support.
3.0.2 522.12 June 22, 2007 Public beta.
3.0.3 522.12.1 July 31, 2007 Public beta. Latest security updates.
3.0.4 523.10. Mac OS X 10.4-10.5 October 26, 2007 Officially released with Mac OS X v10.5 out of beta. Includes the ability to re-arrange tabs by dragging, improved web standards support, the ability to display SVG images, and integration with the Dashboard, allowing users to create widgets from ordinary web pages. For web developers, Safari 3 includes a new “Web Inspector” similar to the popular Firebug extension for Mozilla Firefox.
November 14, 2007 Officially released with Mac OS X v10.4.11.
3.1 525.9 February 15, 2008 Seed 8S4014. Several bug fixes, related mainly to usability.
Seed 9B4014. Several bug fixes, similar to Safari for Tiger Seed 8S4014 (above).
525.12 February 29, 2008 Seed 8S4021. Bug fixes (for Tiger)
Seed 9B4021. Bug fixes (for Leopard)
525.13 March 7, 2008 Seed 8S4022. Bug fixes (for Tiger)
Seed 9B4022. Bug fixes (for Leopard)
3.1 525.13 March 18, 2008 Introduces support for CSS Web fonts and animations and improves support for SVG and HTML 5 media. Performance improvements.

Windows

Major version Minor version WebKit version Operating System Release date Features
Version 3 3.0 522.11.3 Windows
2000, XP, Vista 		June 11, 2007 Public beta, first release for Windows XP and Windows Vista (not supported on Windows 2000, although it will run on it)[17][18]. Has same new features as the version for Mac OS X.
3.0.1 522.12.2 June 13, 2007 Public beta, second release for Windows XP and Windows Vista. Major security updates.
3.0.2 522.13.1 June 22, 2007 Public beta, third release for Windows XP and Windows Vista. Security updates.
3.0.3 522.15.5 August 1, 2007 Public beta, fourth Windows release. Includes major stability enhancements, including a fix for a memory leak.
3.0.4 523.12.9 Windows
XP, Vista 		November 14, 2007 Public beta, fifth Windows release. Fixes many UI behavior issues, though issues still remain. Is not executable on Windows 2000 (in contrast to 3.0.3). Added many shortcut functions found in most major browsers (for example, switching tabs).
523.13 December 17, 2007 Safari 3 Beta 3.0.4 Security Update: A security update meant to prevent cross‐site scripting attacks was applied to the existing release of Safari. [19]
523.15 December 21, 2007 Safari 3 Beta 3.0.4 Security Update v1.1: This update fixes an issue introduced with the previous security update “that may cause Safari to unexpectedly quit when browsing certain websites”. [20] [21]
3.1 525.6 February 2, 2008 Recognized by beta testers as the most stable and bug free release.[22][23]
525.7 February 6, 2008 Seed 31A5. Released only to developers; changes related mainly to browser performance. No cookie support.
525.9 February 15, 2008 Seed 31A7. Several bug fixes, including an issue with saved passwords. Improvements with uploading photos, Javascript, and overall stability and usability. No cookie support.
525.12 February 29, 2008 Seed 31A15. Addresses a security issue that prevented Safari from properly encrypting saved passwords on Windows.
525.13 March 7, 2008 Seed 31A18.
525.14 March 12, 2008 Seed 31A20. Build 31A20 has significant improvements in performance, stability and compatibility.
3.1 525.13 March 18, 2008 First stable release of Safari for Windows. Introduces support for CSS Web fonts and animations and improves support for SVG and HTML 5 media. Performance improvements. Added automatic spell checker for searches.
3.1.1 525.17 April 16, 2008 Improved stability and added security updates.

See also

References

  1. ^ "Apple Unveils Safari". Apple Inc. 2007-01-07. Retrieved 2008-01-03.
  2. ^ "Apple announces Windows browser". BBC News. June 11, 2007. Retrieved 2007-06-11.
  3. ^ Wine AppDB - Safari
  4. ^ "TheCounter.com - Browser Stats". TheCounter.com. Jupitermedia. Retrieved 2008-03-24.
  5. ^ "Browser Market Share Trend for 'Safari' for April, 2007 to February, 2008". Market Share. Net Applications. Retrieved 2008-03-24. {{cite web}}: External link in |publisher= (help)
  6. ^ Safari team. "Introducing the Web Inspector". Apple. Retrieved 2007-06-20.
  7. ^ Estelle Weyl (July 10, 2007). "Safari 3.0 CSS Support".
  8. ^ Dre (January 7, 2003). "Apple Announces New "Safari" Browser". KDE.NEWS. Retrieved 2006-01-04.
  9. ^ Dave Hyatt (April 27, 2005). "Safari Passes the Acid2 Test". Surfin' Safari. MozillaZine. Retrieved 2005-04-28.
  10. ^ Dave Hyatt (October 12, 2005). "Nightly Builds". Surfin' Safari. OpenDarwin.org. Retrieved 2006-10-29.
  11. ^ Errata Security: Niiiice
  12. ^ Larholm.com - Me, myself and I » Safari for Windows, 0day exploit in 2 hours
  13. ^ "Safari 3 Windows Performance Analysis". Web Performance. October 20, 2007. Retrieved 2007-07-24.
  14. ^ a b Mozilla CEO says Apple's Safari auto-update 'wrong' | Webware : Cool Web apps for everyone
  15. ^ http://www.pcworld.com/article/id,143901/article.html
  16. ^ ADC Member Site
  17. ^ programming: I just posted this using Safari 3 on Windows 2000, when will Microsoft support IE 7 on Windows 2000? The IE devs claim technical problems make it overly difficult. Bullshit
  18. ^ PC Pro: Interactive: Forums: Comments: UPDATED: Apple unveils Safari 3 - for Mac and Windows
  19. ^ About the security content of Safari 3 Beta Update 3.0.4 Security Update. Apple.com. Retrieved on 2007-12-21.
  20. ^ Safari 3 Beta 3.0.4 Security Update v1.1. Apple Mailing Lists at Apple.com. Retrieved on 2007-12-22.
  21. ^ About Safari 3 Beta 3.0.4 Security Update v1.1. Apple.com. Retrieved on 2007-12-23.
  22. ^ Apple - Support - Discussions - Safari for Windows is Great!!
  23. ^ Apple - Support - Discussions - file 310A32 (525.6)

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